What a Week! - Part 2

I never sleep well in Mexico.  The bunks are hard, the neighborhood is noisy, some of the women snore and/or talk in their sleep.  And the bunks are noisy!  They really are little more than plywood platforms with thin foam pads for a semblance of mattresses.  Whenever someone tosses and turns or gets up or lays down the bunks creak and groan.  I can also usually hear one or more of the guys snore from across the hall.  The roosters start up about 3:30 every morning and the traffic is constant, horns, people, circuses.  Nope, I rarely sleep well in Mexico.

Saturday morning arrived much too early.  I woke with a sinus headache due to all the dust in the air.  I wandered down to the kitchen to search out a cup of tea. 

Tea in hand I mananged to make it through devotionals and breakfast.  By 8 I was ready to stumble into the meeting room on time and oin in with singing praises to our Lord.  The woman who regularly leads our trips to Mexico has put together a book of songs we sing while in Mexico.  It has some of my favorites in it.  Some we sing in rounds, some we sing in parts, all of them we sing concious of the words we are singing and the impact those words can and do have on our lives.  Eddie has given more than one message on watching the words we sing to the Lord.  If we sing that we are giving Him our "All in All" we had better really be giving Him our All in All.  Eddie can say it in a more convicting manner than I do.

Saturday's message was delivered by a young man maned Brandon Buser.  If you been reading my blog for any amount of time you may have noted 2 previous guest speakers in Mexico, Brad and Brooks Buser.  They are Brandon's father and brother, respectively.  Brad raised Brooks and Brandon in Papua New Guinea while he was a missionary to the Iteri people.  When Brooks and Brandon were grown they each made the decision to return to Papua New Guinea as well, Brooks as a missionary to the Yembi Yembi people and Brandon to the Biem people.  More information regarding this amazing family can be found all over the web.  I just plugged "Buser Papua New Guinea" into Google and got a plethoria of hits.  Brandon shared with us his current update.  Eddie made a pitch for funds for Brandon and his family.  A boat is needed for their return trip to the Biem people.  Part of the journey must be done by boat, it's a 6 hour trip across a section of water that more than once has claimed all their supplies.  A new boat sufficient for their needs will cost close to $80,000.00.

Saturday's build assignment found me on the team with Mike and Diane Slusher and Eddie Passmore.  I love building with them, Mike and Diane especially.  Building with Eddie is a study in contradictions.  He is always telling us to slow down and interact with the families more but he himself powers through the job with blazing speeds.  Still, we were able to get Saturday's house built quickly and still have plenty of time for interaction. 

Lunch that day was totally awesome Vera Cruz tamales with steak ranchera and rice.  The family was shyer than Friday's family so we were unable to get their names (our Spanish sometimes leaves a lot to be desired as well).  We we able to determine they had only one child but there were plenty in the neighborhood and they all wanted to help.  At one point I was laughing at the guys on the site, they each had a small flock of little boys following them, much like the Pied Piper.  Anyways, once she had fed all the "grupos" the mom of our family also fed all the kids in the neighborhood.  It was a very touching sight to see. 

We built a 12x16 house for the family that day but the family had requested only one window due to the amount of wind that location received.  About halfway through the day the father requested a second door for easier access to the "bano" he was having built.  The challenge was, the wall he wanted the door in was already up and painted.  As usual, we were able to rise to the occassion and get the job done.

Since this was an "Eddie" team we fot the house completed in record time, even with the added door challenge.  All to soon we were saying goodbye to the family and headed back to the dorms.

Once back at the dorms we found the jewelry ladies setting up shop.  As usual I had to buy a few trinkets for myself to remember the trip by. 

We didn't have to reload trucks that afternoon as there wasn't going to be a build the next day.

After showers, dinner and ice ceram we once again met in the upstairs room where we had a "de-briefing" meeting.  Eddie loves to hear stories from the builds, especially from the first timers.  Then we got down to business discussing the logistics of traveling home the next day.  I went back to my bunk to pack up as much as I could to make Sunday morning as quick and painless as possible.